Fateful 2-Fractured (22 page)

Not Ethan.

“Morning,” Nadia said, sounding as out of it
as Danielle felt.

“Morning,” she replied, and realized she
sounded just as bad.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.” She frowned. “Like I was
drugged.”

Nadia laughed. “Yes, I would say they
definitely spiked our tea.”

“With what, do you think?”

“Probably some herbal concoction. Sophia
remembers some of the herbs used back when that’s all they
used.”

Danielle remembered that look Ethan gave
Sophia before he left, and realized that he’d communicated a lot
with that one sly look. “Why would they do that? How could they do
that?”

“I’m certain they noticed how much we were
both stressing over this change. And you and the baby clearly
needed some sleep. I’m sure it wasn’t anything that would hurt the
child.” Nadia considered her frown for a moment. “Are you upset
they put us out?”

Danielle pondered that, and then replied,
“It was a relief, to be honest. I didn’t want to think
anymore.”

“I know what you mean.” Nadia rolled to look
toward the window. “The sun is coming up. Do you think they’re
done?”

“How long does that change take?”

“I don’t know. It tends to be different for
every person, and since they’ve both been vampires before it could
have taken less time.”

Danielle swallowed, but couldn’t say
anything. This was real, they really did it. She wasn’t married to
a prince any longer, but a frog instead. Knowing she had to stop
thinking like that, she recalled that she
had
thought of Ethan as her very own Mr. Darcy
when he’d been a vampire. This can’t be as bad as she was making
it, she tried to reason thinking this too could be partly due to
hormones messing with her emotions.

Noise drew her attention to the door as it
opened and Ethan and Max entered. Sophia followed with a tray of
breakfast in her hands.

She thought she’d be able to see the change
in him, but when she couldn’t, she got this crazy hope that maybe
they hadn’t gone through with it.

As Sophia set the tray between her and
Nadia, Ethan reached over her, snagged a piece of sausage and took
a bite out of it. Hope wrapped around her until he pulled a face
and dropped the remainder of the meat back onto her plate. “That’s
just wrong,” he complained, picking the rest of it out of his teeth
with a finger as a look of disgust puckered his lips.

And she knew … he
was
a vampire.

Nadia had already begun to devour her food
as Danielle’s gaze dropped to hers. The smell of the eggs attacked
her nose, and she felt sick. She didn’t know if it was the stress
of the situation, or just being pregnant or maybe even a
combination of the two. But the stench of those eggs sent her over
the edge and she scuttled off the bed and sprang for the
bathroom.

After dry heaving over the toilet until her
stomach ached, she felt Ethan lifting the hair from her face. “I
thought you were past this. Are you okay?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe being drugged did
this to me.” She said the words, but deep down, she didn’t believe
this had anything to do with the spiked tea.

He settled down onto one knee next to her,
and looped one arm around her. “I’m sorry about that. You needed to
rest, and I knew you’d be up all night stressing. What Sophia gave
you was completely harmless.”

“I don’t need ... I don’t…”
I don’t know what to say.

“Are you angry?”

Danielle leaned back against his chest and
groaned. It was still comforting to be near him. Again she reminded
herself that he’d been a vampire when she met him. It couldn’t be
that different now…. “No. I was glad to be out of it.”

“Are you upset about this change?”

He caught her chin with three fingers and
tipped her face so he could look into her eyes. She shuddered
because that magical, trance-like effect had returned to his
gaze.

“Dizzy?”

She closed her eyes, and nodded. She feared
that sensation would make her feel queasy again.

“Look at me,” he whispered gently.

She did, and she was right, as soon as his
blue gaze filled her view, she was forced to shove away from him
and lunge for the toilet again. She still couldn’t get anything out
of her already empty stomach, and Ethan’s distressed reaction to it
was practically tangible.

“Please tell me it’s not the magic that’s
making you nauseated.”

“It is ... a little bit.”

“You don’t like that anymore?”

“Not right now, I don’t,” she snapped right
before another heave of her gut caused her to groan.

That was enough for him to leave the room,
muttering a soft apology.

It wasn’t long after her stomach had finally
settled that Danielle decided she could rejoin the others and
possibly eat some of her breakfast. But before she got too close to
it, she asked Sophia to remove the eggs.

“I’ll have them,” Nadia said, digging her
fork into the fluffy yellow pile of stink on her plate.

The newly restored mortal had them polished
off in no time and then left the room with Max and Sophia. Danielle
settled back onto the bed and reached for her fork. She was in the
mood for the waffle, but she wasn’t sure about the sausage. She
avoided it, worried that it may not sit well either, and she really
didn’t want to taste it twice.

Though she tried, Danielle couldn’t ignore
her husband who was seated on the sofa with his face in his hands.
When she’d finished off what she could stomach of her food, she
called to him. “Ethan.”

He came to the bed with a hesitant look on
his face, sat down next to her, and enveloped her into a tight hug.
“I love you so much; I can’t bear to see you upset with me like
this.”

As he buried his face into her hair and
clutched at her like he’d be lost without her, she finally said, “I
love you too. No matter what you are.”

She didn’t want to prevent the eye contact
he was again searching for when his head lifted. This time it
didn’t make her feel sick, just dizzy enough to nearly knock her
out again.

“Please tell me you’re feeling better.”

“I am. The waffle helped,” she mumbled as
she closed her eyes, trying to get the room to stop tipping like
that.

He didn’t buy it. “You don’t look okay.”

She fell limply back to the bed. “I’m all
right.” She wondered if he noticed how those words squeaked out of
her.

Feeling the mattress depress on either side
of her, Danielle chanced a peek. Ethan was looking down at her.
“You’re fibbing.”

She held onto his gaze even though it was
causing the bed to start rocking. “It’s hitting me harder. I’m
sorry.”

His hopeful expression fell as though the
idea crushed his world.

“I’ll get used to it. I did before,” she
said, trying to soothe the look of total heartbreak on his
face.

Ethan’s gaze landed on her plate and he
frowned. “You didn’t eat enough. That might have helped.”

Shuddering at the idea, she complained, “I
can’t eat eggs right now, and that sausage...” Another shudder
moved over her as she trailed off.

He reached for the glass of orange juice
she’d neglected to finish, tugged her upright as he supported her
with one arm, and held it to her lips. “Drink your juice and I’ll
be satisfied.”

Silently, she accepted the glass and downed
it slowly while he watched her. She wondered what he was thinking
until he noted, “You’re color is better than earlier.”

Danielle set the empty glass on the tray.
“What’s next? Are we going home to pack?”

“Yes, and no.”

“Huh?”

Ethan took her by the hand and led her to
the sofa with him. She noticed he watched her closely, probably to
see how steady she was. Danielle knew he noticed that wobble when
his eyebrow lifted. But what disturbed her more was the sense that
he had more bad news to confess.

“You’re going straight to the airport with
Cedric, Merrick, and Richard.”

Her eyes rounded as her eyebrows lifted.
“The Black Prince?” she asked slowly.

“Yes.”

“Without you?” Hearing the panic rising in
her tone, she swallowed thickly.

“I’ll be going home with Gillian, who will
be dressed as you, to let them see us hunting together. Max and
Nadia will be going out to eat driving a car exactly like the one
you and I will be in. Beon will be driving another, and so will
Seth. We plan to lose them with four cars that look the same, all
going in different directions. And we need to put you in a
disguise.”

Another twinge of nausea roiled inside
her gut when he mentioned Gillian. That pretty vampire was going to
be in
her
home, with
her
husband? “When will you come to
Colorado with me?”

“I’ll follow as soon as I can.” He combed
his fingers through her hair, and then tugged her close for another
kiss and hug.

Even feeling his arms encircle her, she
couldn’t smile, this pout that she felt on her face was the only
expression available.

With a chuckle, he pulled back to meet her
gaze and said, “I know, you need to know the exact amount of hours
until we’re back together.” Those blue eyes of his danced with
mirth.

“If you knew that, then why didn’t you just
tell me in the first place?”

“Because I don’t know the answer. I need to
stay until we think they’ve bought into Gillian being you.”

“If you stay too long, they could
figure out that she isn’t me.”
And I would
continue to stress about you being with her.

“I’m trying for a week.” He held her close
again, his cheek resting against her hair, like he sensed her
internal distress. “Will that work for you?”

She thought a week sounded like a really
long time at the moment as her chin settled onto his shoulder.
Instead of expressing that to him she asked, “And I’m going to be
safe with three vampires, two of whom, I don’t really know?”

“I know them. You’ll be fine ... or I’ll
kill them,” Ethan threatened and she knew from the menace in his
tone that he meant it.

They separated and she leaned against the
back of the sofa. “I don’t have anything to take with me on the
plane.”

“Beon took care of that. He went to our
place and packed a bag for you, along with your purse, and your
passport.”

“Beon packed? Why didn’t he send
Sophia, I think I’d trust her more…”
with
things like underwear.

“Beon didn’t feel like it was safe for
her.”

“But—” The door opening again silenced her,
and Beon walked in carrying a purse, not the one she normally used,
but a different one. Danielle figured he’d probably left the
luggage in the car. She realized it was time for her to go, and she
slung her arms around Ethan’s middle. It didn’t take much more than
that for the tears to come.

Ethan cupped the back of her head and rubbed
her back with his other hand. “Shhh, everything will be fine. I
need you to trust me, and the others.”

“I’ll try.”

“Good, now let’s get you into your
disguise.” Ethan lifted a sack from the floor, led her to the
bathroom, and started pulling out items for her to put on. It was
the type of outfit she would never wear, and she realized why
they’d chosen it. She would have been hard to recognize in it.
There was a curly, blond wig, a crocheted Bohemian skull hat, a
pair of holy jeans, a baggy sweatshirt, and a pair of brown hiking
boots. It all came together for a sort of nature-girl meets
hippy-chic.

She slipped out of her dress, and tugged on
the clothes. Ethan helped her with the wig, and hat, trying to make
it look as natural as possible, and then advised her to put on
makeup that also made her look different.

“How is my passport going to match this new
look?”

“They have a camera ready. Cedric can fake
it for us, and then we’ll go, or rather, you’ll go.”

“He’s that fast?”

“He’s the Order’s computer nerd.”

“Hm. I see.”

When they were done, he towed her back to
the room and she was greeted with her three escorts. She recognized
Merrick and Cedric who were both dressed as business men. But she
had never seen the man she assumed to be the prince, and noticed
that he was dressed to match her grungy look with faded jeans, a
gray t-shirt and a black leather jacket. Apparently they meant to
make it look like they were a couple.

“Shall we?” Cedric said, offering his
arm.

Which she didn’t take, spinning back toward
Ethan, she clutched him close and kissed him goodbye. He chuckled
and returned the sentiment, then shoved her gently toward Cedric,
who gathered her to him and tugged her from the room with Merrick
and Richard following. Cedric took her picture, worked his
fraudulent passport magic, and then they left for the airport.

Chapter 14

The Black Moods of Noble Toads

They took the long way to the airport, and
even switched cars three times. Seemed they were really serious
about getting her out of the country unseen. At the airport they
made it appear as though they were in pairs, rather than one girl
with three men.

Richard took her about the waist and nuzzled
her ear. “Pretend with me, Danielle. We’ve already seen vampires
watching for you here.” She tensed but tried to lean into him like
she liked it, and couldn’t help but worry if this is what Ethan was
doing with Gillian. She felt another heavy twinge of jealousy about
it.

The plane ride was way too long, and the
prince kept lifting the back of her hand to his lips to give her
kisses. This intimate treatment came from the same man whom she’d
only just met, and had barely shared more than a handful of words
with. He then muttered into her ear that they still weren’t alone,
and she secretly wondered if he was just taking advantage of this
situation.